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THE SHOES OF PEACE. 



THE 



SHOES OF PEACE. 



B 

ANNA B. WARNER, 

AUTHOR OF "THE MELODY OF THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM.* 



Ohne Hast, ohne Rast. 
How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter ! 

Canticles, 



1<L* 



NEW YORK: 
HURST & COMPANY, 

122 Nassau Street. 







y 






\ 



&\ 



Copyrieht, i88i 
By ROBERT CARTER & iskOTHERS. 

Copyright, 1891, 
By HURST & COMPANY. 



The Library 
Congress 



WASHINGTON 



LC Control Number 




267 Cherry Street N. Y„ 



tm P 96 027732 




INTRODUCTION. 



I plead for a neglected bit of the Christian 
armour. The strong helmet, the sharp sword, 
the -ready shield, — even the shining breast- 
plate, — have many wearers. But the quiet 
shoes are out of date. I think people well- 
nigh forget that such things are possible. Yet 
there stands the injunction : 

" Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel 
of peace " (Eph. vi. 15). 

While the old and never-revoked promise covers 
all the roughness, of every road. 

" Thy shoes shall be iron and brass ; and as thy 
days, so shall thy strength be " (Deut. xxxiii. 25). 

August, 1884. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

A Cloud in the West 9 

Crowded Out 19 

A Time for Everything 30 

The Tangled Skein 54 

Now 71 

All Things full of Labour . . . . . . 84 

Are all Apostles? 103 

Until the Evening 124 



THE SHOES OF PEACE. 



A CLOUD IN THE WEST. 



LISTENING the other day to the rat- 
tling echoes among our hills, as gun 
after gun gave forth its welcome to the 
Twenty-second of February, I began to 
wonder with myself what the Father of his 
Country would say to this great child of 
his, decked in all her Nineteenth century 
progress ? How would these almost forty 
States compare with the old thirteen, to 
those sagacious and far-seeing eyes ? 



io A Cloud in the West. 

It is hard, I suppose, for the wisest man 
to judge fairly between his own age and 
another, or even between one part and an- 
other of his own. That early time 

" When feelings were young, and the world was new," 

must of necessity stand always apart, and 
in some sort unapproachable. Then eyes 
were ignorant, and hearts untried, and 
storms made no impression ; but now come 
" the evil days" spoken of by the Preacher, 
and " the clouds return after the rain." 
Can that small, pale moon overhead, thread- 
ing her way among obscuring vapours, be 
possibly the very same great golden ball 
that rolled up so grandly from the eastern 
horizon ? In the look of all earthly affairs 
the passage of time, the growth of knowl- 
edge, must make a change. Yet a few 
things remain, for they are promised ; and 
a few are unalterable, being " established 



A Cloud in the West 1 1 

for ever." "Though a sinner do evil an 
hundred times, and his days be prolonged, 
yet surely I know that it shall be well with 
them that fear God, which fear before him" 
(Eccl. viii. 12). 

With Bible help, then, it is well worth our 
while — it is our bounden duty — to study 
the age we live in. Not for its money- 
making facilities alone ; but for its dan- 
gers, its mistakes, its drift. We all study 
the day's temperature, we all peer earnestly 
into to-morrow's weather ; but the electric 
and magnetic conditions of the times are 
passed by unnoticed. And the few who 
pause to examine and dare to proclaim, 
are classed by the rest with those prover- 
bial people who always carry umbrellas. 
" Ye can discern the face of the sky ; but 
can ye not discern the signs of the times ?" 
(Matt. xvi. 3.) Clearly, then, the study of 
the times is not a blind thing, neither with- 



12 A Cloud in the West. 

out profit ; even though it lead to cautionary 
signals in most unexpected places. 

" The times," — and what wonderful 
times they are ! Almost the " Arabian 
Nights " in common life experience. " Many 
run to and fro, and knowledge is increased.'* 
With endless appliances for comfort, with 
countless helps for work ; and yet, if the 
age must be named, it might well be called 
"the Time of no time." For that is the uni- 
versal, ceaseless complaint. Yet the days 
are as long as ever ; the sun "hasteth" no 
faster " unto his going down ; " each min- 
ute rings out its full round value ; while the 
ease of living is a thousand fold increased ; 
and still nobody has (or thinks he has) lei- 
sure to draw one long, calm, satisfying 
breath, and to "eat his bread with quiet- 
ness." Hezekiah thought his days flew " like 
a weavers shuttle;" but, only steam rates 
can describe ours. " Too busy ! " — " No 



A Cloud in the West. 13 

time !" is the cry on every hand : the wide- 
spread reason, answer, and excuse. What 
has become of the self-controlled patience 
which two generations ago could wait a week 
for the mail, and contemplate a six months' 
voyage to the Sandwich Islands ? or spend 
eight days on a sailing vessel between 
New York and Albany ? The men of this 
generation would chafe to death before 
they reached Poughkeepsie. People do 
not appear to enjoy their breathlessness : 
one is reminded of the words of the Prophet : 
"Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not 
increased the joy;" for everybody says, 
" How I would like to do this or that if 
only / had time /" Therefore much satis- 
faction does not seem to be crowded in. 
What is crowded out ? 

Church services, for one thing. Listen 
to your Wednesday-evening combination 
bell, and hear what it says. It is not so 



14 A Cloud in the West. 

very long since that bell had much more to 
do. At nine o'clock Sunday morning came 
Sunday school, with a Bible class or two in 
the church gallery. Then service at half 
past ten, Sunday school again at two (with 
other Bible classes and outside mission 
schools), church service at three, prayer 
meeting at seven. During the week, prayer 
meeting Tuesday night, lecture Thursday 
night, teachers' meeting Saturday night. 
And we no more thought of accepting any 
other invitation for church nights, than we 
thought (in those innocent days) of going 
to the theatre or playing cards. And truly 
we had small need. Ah, how good the 
meetings were ! How pleasant it was, as 
one and another of many who now walk in 
white beyond the flood, came softly into the 
little room, — elders, deacons, " young men 
and maidens, old men and children," — and 
we all rose and sang together, — 



A Cloud in the West. 15 



" Sweet and solemn be the season 

When the friends of Jesus meet," — 

a hymn I never hear sung nowadays. 

" Time is precious ; we *11 improve it. 
Worldlings talk of worldly things. 
Leave the world to those who love it ; 
'T is not thence our comfort springs. 

Jesus owns us ; 
Jesus is the King of kings." 

I think I shall hardly hear "Zion" sung, 
to the end of my life, without those words 
chiming in. 

Perhaps just at that time Dr. Skinner 
was going through Colossians, in a famil- 
iar, Bible-reading sort of way ; pausing 
over such words as "puffed up," — or " after 
the rudiments of the world, and not after 
Christ," — and then the little company 
parted, with the benediction on their 
hearts. It was not only Time you had 
there, but Eternity as well. 



1 6 A Cloud in the West. 

As Charles Lamb's sister said of other 
past pleasures, " We might do such things 
now ; but do we ? " No ; one night in the 
week is all we can spare, and Sunday 
services must be shortened. We are 
too tired to get to church before eleven 
o'clock, and really u a man ought to be 
able to say what he has to say in twenty 
minutes." 

We think of the knights of old, that they 
must have been strong to carry their ar- 
mour ; but what degree of force and endur- 
ance enabled the men — and women — of a 
hundred years ago, to sit out a two hours' 
sermon in a perfectly cold church, with 
hard seats and a New England winter? 
I like long sermons myself; and being lin- 
eally descended from those very people, 
can "give a gay guess" how it was ; but 
what would have become of the people who 
demand the aforesaid twenty minutes in 



A Cloud in the West. 17 

furnace heat ? Four verses of a hymn (or 
three) where once it was sung straight 
through, and prayers cut down to the 
general feeling of hurry ? To be sure, a lit- 
tle time may be saved by buying a news- 
paper on the way to church ; by a moment's 
consultation in the porch ; by studying the 
shop windows on the way home, — windows 
now left obligingly at least half open. In 
this way the waste Sunday hours may help 
arrange plans for Monday. Perhaps you 
think this cutting-down process has been 
good for the ministers ; but I doubt even 
that. Time and strength may indeed 
be set free for popular lectures and sci- 
entific books and after-dinner speeches ; 
but I think the prayer meetings were 
better. 

Who keeps up now the old Monthly 
Concert of prayer for the conversion of the 

world? except indeed the far-off mission- 

2 



A Cloud in the West. 



aries, or some country church which has 
not found out how the world moves, but 
only that it is not yet converted ? 

Then family prayers. — But that is too 
long a subject for the end of a chapter. 




CROWDED OUT. 



IN a certain mansion of ten servants, 
where once I was much at home, the 
waiter (a dusky West Indian) used to declare 
emphatically, " Dere 's no time for prayers 
in a house like dis." If he was right, then 
manifestly something* else was wrong. But 
how many houses "like this " ( in that) are 
built up now-a-days ? What proportion of 
even the homes of church members bear 
the motto of another dwelling which also I 
knew well, — "For God, the Church, and 
the family " ? Yet this last was one of the 
most blessed and blessing abodes this earth 
ever saw ; and " Godliness is profitable for 
the life that now is." 



20 Crowded Out, 



Who really believes it, — in even small 
household affairs "seeking first the king- 
dom " ? Who prays with missionary Good- 
ell, that not only his house, but "all the 
furniture, may be consecrated''? Nay, if 
we can get it fashioned like our neighbour's, 
we are most of us content. People are out 
of breath in the race, but it is not the race 
described by Paul. He that striveth for 
that mastery " is temperate in all things ; " 
and even his business knows its place. 

Dr. Bickersteth said to me once that 
women make an idol of their work ; but 
surely not the women alone. Does not the 
shapeless thing crowd everybody, in every 
place, with a right of way which is alto- 
gether heathen ? Take this one matter 
of family prayer, — and setting aside the 
houses where it has been quite crowded 
out, to how many prosperous business men 
(as to one I heard of) might come his 



Crowded Out. 21 



child's innocent comment, — "Father, my 
teacher says we ought n't to say our prayers 
fast!' The bath is enjoyed, the toilet is 
elaborate ; the breakfast, if not lingered 
over, yet has full justice. But the prayers 
are hurried. Want of thought brings lack 
of realization. The head of the house is 
too well to remember: "The Lord killeth 
and maketh alive/' — too competent, to 
recollect : " It is the Lord that giveth thee 
power to get wealth." The morning paper 
has told him of a rise in stocks, the barom- 
eter hints at a change in the weather ; and 
he is on the spring to meet and prevent or 
take advantage, as the case may be. But 
the tired look on his wife's face, which her- 
alds for her a weary day ; the fretfulness of 
a child who has got up u wrong foot first ; " 
some new — or old — fault in a servant, — all 
these he will leave behind so soon, that they 
are hardly worth praying about. Rather he 



22 Crowded Out. 



anticipates the joyful slam of the front door, 
which for eight hours at least will shut 
them off from him, and him from them. 

As little, very often, does he realize what 
lies outside the door : the possible snares 
for his feet in the busy haunts down town, 
the lurking dangers that may await him 
in his office. "Infernal machines," truly, 
but not of a sort to be handed over to the 
police. Only believing prayer can thwart 
them, but that can. 

How lovely, how fitting, then, that the 
householder should place all these varied 
interests in safe keeping before he goes ! 
asking not only a blessing on basket and 
store, but also pleasant paths for the moth- 
er's feet and safe steps for the children. 
I fancy it would comfort many a wife's heart 
to hear her husband pray over her daily 
cares. And instead of vague generalities 
( " that we may not leave undone those 



Crowded Out. 23 



things which ought to be done"), he need 
not be ashamed to come out boldly, and 
pray for himself too, that he also may walk 
this day " in the paths of righteousness " 
" Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth'' 
(Ps. cxli. 3). " Hold thou .me up, and I shall 
be safe " (Ps. cxix. 117). 

And if not only for the circle at home 
but also for the throng abroad he should 
breathe a petition, — for his business associ- 
ates, his workpeople, or those under whom 
he serves, -—if from every Christian house- 
hold there w r ent up, morning by morning, 
such ascending prayers : O, what descend- 
ing dews of grace would follow! How 
sweetly and easily would the father go about 
his toil and the mother to her labours, their 
feet " shod with the preparation of the gos- 
pel of peace." What straight paths would 
open before the business men, what safe es- 
capes before the tempted ; what roots of 



24 Crozvded Out. 



patience, what fruits of righteousness, would 
spring up and grow and flourish ! Life so 
transferred with a full heart to the Lord's 
keeping is lifted at once out of the low 
plane of mere making money and directing 
servants, as also from the dead level of 
incessant toil. A sense of God's unseen 
legion makes us strong, the fresh breath 
of his presence keeps down the dust ; and 
all this poor rough-and-tumble world is 
changed. How can we be angry with a 
man in the afternoon, for whom we have 
eagerly prayed in the morning ? How chafe 
over difficulties, failures, remembering al- 
ways, " It is the Lord " ? Failures, did I say ? 
in such a life no failure is possible. 

" He always wins who sides with God." 

But too often it is hurry in the morning 
(or no prayers at all), and at night six- 
o'clock dinners, seven-o'clock dinner-par- 



Crowded Out. 25 



ties ; the servants in a press, the children 
gone to bed. Or a visitor rings at the door, 
and nobody dare ask him to wait ( unless 
for an incomplete toilet) or better still, 
will ask him in to join the family service. 

But, say you, he is a gay young man; he 
would not like it. Now as a rule, I think 
young men like (or like to witness) anything 
that is real. Or you think the visitor "does 
not believe in anything," — then it is time 
he should know there are people who do. 
One should not obtrude even the best 
things. But if the prayer hour were as 
fixed as the hour for dinner, one might 
as properly invite in a stranger to the one as 
to the other ; he having in either case the 
right to refuse. I shall never forget the 
pleasure, when after a long summer drive 
to breakfast at a certain house, we found 
that the family had waited our arrival, and 
we all had prayers together before the meal 



26 Crowded Out. 



was served. Too many feel just the other 
way. " We must have prayers a little early, 
before they come," — or "a little late, after 
they go." 

Then as to the children. It is maybe 
better for their health ( and doubtless for 
their complexions ) to have their bread and 
milk, and go to bed with only a far-off 
whiff of the six-o'clock roast ; and you can- 
not well have prayers before that early 
hour, for the head of the house is not at 
home. But as I look back to my own 
childish days, I would not, at a venture, give 
up the prayer-time lessons, even for some- 
what more of strength and colour. The 
whole picture comes back to me now. The 
little one of the house, nestled close to her 
who had taken the mother's place ; the 
elder girl sitting apart in dignified erect- 
ness ; the servants, with folded hands and 
reverent faces ; the weary seamstress^ come 



Crowded Out. 27 

for a breath of refreshment after the many 
stitches of the day. I am afraid to go on, 
and tell what the clock said ! — 

Children need health of mind as well as 
of body; and neither can flourish in nur- 
sery shade. I was reading lately of some 
one who had questioned many people as 
to the time and means of their conversion ; 
and Dr. Taylor's answer is a whole book of 
practical wisdom. "He did not know," 
he said : " he just grew up into it." Ah, I 
have seen such families, but they are not 
common. " Our sons as plants grown up 
in their youth. Our daughters as corner 
stones, polished after the similitude of a 
palace" (Ps. cxliv. 12). 

But how often do you find that straight, 
vigorous growth of young men ; filling the 
world with fresh leafage, with precious fruit ? 
Where do you see the young women be- 
coming the strong bond of the house, and 



28 Crowded Out, 

yet shining with all exquisite symmetry 
and finish ? The boys are sent to a hot- 
house to be forced, the girls get their pol- 
ish at the dancing-school. 

Now a man may much better grant his 
children less money and more attention. 
My father was a professional man in very 
full practice ; but he always found time to 
give us delightful breakfast talks : talks 
for which we children had to prepare our- 
selves, he giving out the subject before- 
hand. Simple subjects, such as we could 
understand ; what if the study stretched 
our minds a little. " The bread-stuffs of 
the world," — "Pitch, tar, and turpentine," 
— or " The English Regalia." Sometimes 
a name in history, or a great fact, like 
"Magna Charta." Then we hunted and 
studied and brought forth all our learning ; 
too happy when we found some little detail 
which even our father did not know. We 



Crowded Out, 29 



told, — and he corrected and organized our 
crude knowledge. And after tea, unless 
some very pressing case was on hand, he 
always read aloud to us for an hour. Or we 
studied engravings together, — or turned 
over books of etchings ; the youngest then 
kneeling in a chair at his side. Yes, of 
course, " we ought to have been in bed,' 1 
— but nothing will ever make me wish 
that we had ! — 

" Prayer is the key of the morning, and 
the lock of night," says some old writer : 
happy is the family whose day holds noth- 
ing which the one may not fitly open, 
and the other peacefully close. 

"Happy is the people that is in such a 
case : yea, happy is the people whose God 
is the Lord " (Ps. cxliv. 15). 



A TIME FOR EVERYTHING. 

"HPO everything there is a season, and a 
A time to every purpose under the 
heaven," said the Preacher. But if a time, 
then also time : time for everything. 

I shall be met here with a great shout of 
derision. As if anybody ever had time for 
anything in this workaday world ? And if I 
go further, and say that when not it is our 
own fault; and that our Master in heaven 
never gives his servants more to do than 
they can do thoroughly ; people will hold 
up hands at my ignorance. Well, I have 
lived as busy a life as most, and I repeat 
my words. Look at it. Half-done work 
is a thing the Lord cannot away with : the 



A Time for Everything. 31 

finish of creation is as marvellous as its 
vastness. Fuller and fuller grows the world 
of life, the deeper in you go ; but also more 
exquisite grows each detail. Finer and finer 
draws out the sting point of a wasp, under 
your more and more powerful magnifiers ; 
while the smallest needle man ever made, 
turns by degrees into a blunt crow-bar. 
The unsuspected carvings on a fish scale 
are dainty beyond description : the white 
chalk dust contains microscopic globes of 
spun silver, surpassing anything that Tif- 
fany's most cunning workmen see even in 
their dreams. The little Mellicerta — to the 
naked eye as large as an ordinary full stop 
— has a mould upon its chin wherein it 
makes bricks from the muddy ditch water of 
its surroundings ; and builds to itself thereof 
a round tower of habitation or defence. 
The minute creature has no hands ; but 
deftly turning itself now this way, now that,, 



32 A Time for Everything. 

adroitly and accurately dumps out the fin- 
ished brick on whichever spot of its wall 
needs heightening or repair. 

"O Lord, how manifold are thy works ! in 
wisdom hast thou made them all : the earth 
is full of thy riches " (Ps. civ. 24). 

You may see here — and in countless 
like instances — what satisfies that all- 
cognizant eye. You understand now what 
the words in Genesis mean : " And God 
saw everything that he had made, and, 
behold, it was very good" (Gen. i. 31). 

Man only left the perfect scheme, and 
went on and " sought out many inventions." 
Yet the rule is not changed : the measure to 
which man should attain has never been cut 
down. And so the Lord's servants must 
not even "look back" from the plough; 
must have "every thought in captivity unto 
Christ;" must "serve him with a perfect 
heart ; " loving the Lord their God with 



A Time for Everything. 33 

"all the heart and soul and mind and 
strength." 

Is it likely then, that he will so arrange 
their lives that the service thus rendered 
shall be after all only job-work, — crude, 
imperfect, hurried through ? Will he whose 
" tender mercies are over all his works," 
make his people only "to serve with rig- 
our"? Or is it probable that the great 
King whose " chariots are thousands of 
angels," and his messengers "an innumer- 
able company," should constantly drive his 
poor human servants to distraction ? It 
was under Pharaoh the Israelites had no 
time to breathe, — not under God. 

No, the whole Bible denies it. And 
while they like other children of Adam 
must eat bread in the sweat of the brow, 
for them only falls the cool shadow on all 
the way of toil ; and they only know that 
" man doth not live by bread alone." 
3 



34 A Time for Everything. 

So it may be, so it should be. You will 
find, if you search it out, that we are 
helping build " treasure cities " for Pharaoh, 
when our lives are " bitter" with every 
day's "brick and mortar:" it is by his 
taskmasters we are driven ; and " bricks 
without straw " is the wearisome stint. 
The feverish haste and unchristian worry ; 
the perpetual effort to do what we cannot, 
to seem what we are not, to have what we 
may not, — is it not like the old days of the 
bondage? " The people sighed" then — 
and they sigh now ! yet the struggle keeps 
on. Be as rich as your neighbours, be 
dressed like your friends ; go where they 
go, do what they do ; hear all the preachers, 
sit on all the committees, serve on all the 
boards ; trim all the dresses, decorate 
everything that can (or can not) be deco- 
rated Anything, to keep the blood up to 
fever heat. 



A Time for Everything. 35 

But, you say, these things are good, acc- 
essary, and useful. In moderation. But 
not for you, if they crowd your life and 
overset your nerves : so doing them, you 
help neither your friends nor the world. 
Better three quiet minds on a committee, 
than a dozen weary, hurried souls. Better 
the plainest bonnet, crowning a fresh, 
cheerful face ; or the commonest dress, 
borne hither and thither with swift elastic 
motions ; than all the triumphs of needle- 
work, trailed round on languid feet. Bet- 
ter to take all preachers but your own on 
trust, and rest yourself with a book instead 
of a lecture. 

Now indeed you hear all the lectures, 
but have no time for reading ; neither to 
" keep up " your music — yet you attend all 
the concerts. No leisure, it may be, to 
teach the children and answer their ques- 
tions, because you are so very busy ruffling 



36 A Time for Everything. 

their frocks ! The home farm grows up to 
weeds, while the farmer debates over en- 
silage. Or if you are one of those happy 
people who can be in twenty places at once, 
you will by and by pay for the distinction 
with overwrought nerves and broken 
strength. I have seen a woman rush from 
an ordination in New Jersey to a luncheon 
in New York, thence to a May anniversary ; 
and thence — dear me, I do not know 
whither ! Perhaps by the night train to a 
farewell missionary meeting in Boston. 

But, you insist again, such things are 
right : some people's work, other people's 
play. Do then whatever right things you 
can do thoroughly, peacefully, and with no 
undue crowding of hands or heart ; the 
best things first. An extra sermon you 
are too weary to take in, even from the 
preacher of the world, will not profit you 
much : witness Eutychus. A missionary 



A Time for Everything. 37 

meeting that unfits you for mission work 
at home, is worse than useless. How often 
we can guess the fatigue of our friends, from 
their irritability; and maybe hear (or use) 
the sorrowful excuse : " Forgive me, — I did 
not mean to speak so, — but I am so tired ! " 
Manifestly there is here some great mis- 
take. I do not believe it is the Lord's 
pleasure that his people should live in a 
perpetual rush and hurry. The whole 
teaching of his work is against it. Leaf 
by leaf the forest clothes itself with ver- 
dure; with slightly quickened action some- 
times after unavoidable delays, but never 
with any haste that mars its perfection. 
And from the time when the dayspring 
first "knew its place," a steady "more 
and more" has been the only rule of 
the morning. 

" Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth 
her appointed times, and the turtle and the 



38 A Time for Every tiling. 

crane and the swallow observe the time of 
their coming" (Jer. viii. 7). 

The wren appears by the last of April, 
and the catbirds on the tenth of May. 
Absolute, regular order, without pressure, 
without delay, is the law of the natural 
world. And in revelation it is the same. 
The very crown of Christian life in the 
Bible is to be " always abounding," and yet 
at rest : everything being adjusted with 
that wonderful poise and balance which 
is at the antipodes of all breathlessness, 
hurry, and confusion. A soul "dwelling 
at ease;" a heart "quiet from fear of evil;" 
abiding in the shadow of a great peace. 

" A faith that shines more bright and clear 
When tempests rage without ; 
That even in danger feels no fear, 
In darkness knows no doubt." 

And that even in the face of imminent need, 
can "both hope, and quietly wait for the 
Lord." 



A Time for Everything, 39 

" Consider the lilies, how they grow " 
(Matt. vi. 28). 

" Better is an handful with quietness, 
than both the hands full, with travail and 
vexation of spirit" (Eccl. iv. 6). 

Quietness indeed is the watchword of 
these old Bible saints : " in quietness and 
in confidence " is all their " strength." Thus 
they are " diligent in business " — but 
also "study to be quiet:" "serving God 
day and night," yet " casting all their care 
upon him : " " redeeming the time," and 
still taking "no thought for the morrow. 5 ' 
The lilies themselves grow not more softly 
and surely to their fragrant bloom ; the 
birds of the air do not more simply and 
unquestioningly live by the hourly rule : 

"That thou givest them, they gather" 
(Ps. civ. 28). 

It may be more yesterday and less to- 
day ; it may be now dainties, and then but 



40 A Time for Everything. 

daily bread: yet all coming "from the 
good hand of our God upon us," they have 
learned " in whatsoever state " they are, 
" therewith to be content. " 

Thus they " eat their bread with joy," and 
their daily path is " by the waters of quiet- 
ness." They " do their work with quiet- 
ness," — they "lead a quiet and peaceable 
life ; " and wear " the ornament of a meek 
and quiet spirit." 

These are not the prevailing fashions of 
the day, even among church members. 
Look at the restless eyes, the anxious 
faces : note the dull murmur of unsatisfied 
desire, swelling every now and then into 
absolute complaint. Hear the Christian 
women worry over their housekeeping : 
see the up-town religious man at the 
down-town Exchange. Hat pushed back, 
coat thrown open, eyes wild, hands out- 
stretched, voice uplifted ; shouting, gesticu- 
lating, grasping, with the rest. 



A Time for Everything. 41 

" My brethren, these things ought not so 
to be " (Jas. iii. 10). 

Should u a good soldier of Jesus Christ " 
put off his uniform and wear a common 
dress, that he may make a better bargain ? 
Or " an Israelite indeed " be ever seen 
without the "ribband of blue," the royal 
colours ? " Ye shall wear it," said the Lord, 
" that ye may remember and do all my 
commandments, and be holy unto your 
God " (Num. xv. 40). 

In a great Ward school which I visited 
once, you could pick out the Jewish chil- 
dren, all over the room, by the little closed 
mouths and silent lips when the praises 
of Jesus were sung. Ah, why will not 
people be as true to the true as they are 
to the false ! For just so, should a believer 
be known, even on 'Change, as no wor- 
shipper of mammon, no truster in " uncer- 
tain riches." What though, like the three 



42 A Time for Everything. 

in Babylon, he must stand alone, while all 
the rest of the world are on their knees 
before the golden image. 

" Let your moderation be known unto 
all men" (Phil. iv. 5). 

" Walk as children of light " (Eph. v. 8). 

Is it only " a woman's view " ? But 
there surely must be a righteous way of 
doing righteous things, — and the ^righ- 
teous should as surely be let alone. If that 
also is a woman's view, it would take a wise 
man to dispute it. Let the dwellers at 
home too remember this. For how should 
a Christian woman fret? even over dust 
and unfaithful service. 

" I beseech you by the meekness and 
gentleness of Christ " (2 Cor. x. 1). 

They are genuine annoyances, these 
things : the host of trifling items in our 
daily life which ought to be different: the 
bad fitting of a dress, the imperfections 



A Time for Everything, 43 

of a cook, the stupidity of a messenger ; 
not to speak of the unreasonableness which 
now and then crops out in a friend. We 
have (and should have) an honest dislike 
to them all. Set them straight if you can, 
— if a few wise words will do it. 

" Ye which are spiritual restore such an 
one in the spirit of meekness " (Gal. vi. 1). 

But if not, take a long breath of silence 
and press on. " The talk of the lips tend- 
eth only to penury : " both of time and 
patience. You may soon outstrip the 
grievance, if you will but leave it where it 
belongs, by the wayside. Stop to wonder 
and complain, and it will spring to your 
shoulders like Sindbad's old man of the 
sea, and ride you all the day. The mis- 
chievous insect horde can do little to hurt 
a plant that is in full rich growth ; with 
head in the sunshine, and roots struck deep 
44 by the rivers of water." 



44 d Time for Everything. 

I have called them trifles — for trifles they 
are, in a world of life and death and souls 
of men; but even in the face of much more 
serious evils, still u Vor-warts ! " — as the 
German officer said, with kindly quiet firm- 
ness, when his little troop faltered before a 
hail of bullets. 

" Have not I commanded thee ? Be 
strong and of a good courage" (Josh. i. 9). 

" Doe the nexte thynge," — and wait for 
the next but one till it comes ; letting 
neither the good of something you long for, 
nor the disagreeableness of something you 
wish well over, flurry your spirits. Walk 
round Jericho thirteen times, if need be, 
but take also for that the allotted hours. If 
you crowd into one day the work marked 
out for seven, you will be too much out of 
breath to shout when the time comes, and 
the walls will maybe never fall. 

" By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, 



A Time for Everything. 45 

after they were compassed about seven 
days" (Heb. xi. 30). 

" Behold, the husbandman waiteth for 
the precious fruit of the earth, and hath 
long patience for it, until he receive the 
early and latter rain " (Jas. v. 7). 

And we, poor blunderers, think one rain 
might do ; planting our little seeds deep, 
and our great ones on the surface; and the 
length of our patience is not worth meas- 
uring. We think everything that will 
grow, must grow at once. 

Yes, patience does seem very " long " 
sometimes ; and " after many days " looks 
far away: but it will come, — and the weary 
toiler shall return, " bringing his sheaves 
with him." Sheaves from many an un- 
noted field, trophies from many an unre- 
corded battle ; all won, through the grace 
of God, by " patient continuance." 

Then give everything the full time it 



46 A Time for Everything. 

needs for perfect development. Be as 
eager as you like, but keep all restless 
hurry out of your heart and tongue and life ; 
it is the sure cause of many failures, many 
mistakes. In his haste, David called " all 
men liars" (Ps. cxvi. 1 1), ready to say no one 
could be trusted. Worse than that, his flur- 
ried spirit thought God had forgotten him. 

" I said in my haste, I am cut off from 
before thine eyes" (Ps. xxxi. 22). 

" Seest thou a man hasty in his words ? 
there is more hope of a fool than of him " 
(Prov. xxix. 20). 

And the rule goes deeper than mere 
speech. " Be not hasty in thy spirit to 
be angry " (Prov. vii. 9). " If there is any 
occasion/' adds the human proverb, "you 
will have time enough. ,, 

Do you think I would have an easy- 
going, slack-handed race of people ? Not 
so : they are to be not only " diligent in 



A Time for Everything. 47 

business," but also " fervent in spirit ; " 
with the genial glow which goes with all 
wholesome action. 

" The king's business requireth haste " 
(1 Sam. xxi. 8). 

Even Gabriel had to "fly swiftly," to be 
in time. "Run, speak to this young man," 
said one angel to another in the days of 
Zechariah. But the Bible haste is utterly 
unlike our hurry, and means only this : the 
utmost speed that consists with the most 
perfect going, and the least possible delay. 
It never means more, nor less : the "how" 
is never merged in the " when." 

" I will run the way of thy command- 
ments" (Ps. cxix. 32). 

It is the daily rule. But so also is this : 

"Ponder the path of thy feet" (Prov. 
iv. 26). 

"The prudent man looketh well to his 
going" (Prov. xiv. 15). 



48 A Time for Everything. 

" The wisdom of the prudent is to under- 
stand his way" (Prov. xiv. 8). 

Being all summed up in one other word : 

" My soul followeth hard after thee " 
(Ps. lxiii. 8). 

" I made haste, and delayed not, to keep 
thy commandments " (Ps. cxix. 60). 

There is plenty of such running in the 
Bible : quickened steps from quickened 
powers and a heart astir. Thus Abraham, 
with three heavenly guests to entertain, 
" hastened into the tent to Sarah," and 
then "ran unto the herd." Thus Aaron, 
when the sin-invited plague had broken out 
among the people, caught up his censer, 
" and ran into the midst of the congrega- 
tion/' and 4< stood between the dead and 
the living." The wife of Manoah " made 
haste and ran " to find her husband, that 
he too might hear the heavenly message ; 
and David, with his five smooth stones, 



A Time for Everything. 49 

" hasted and ran " to meet the Philistine, 
the staff of whose spear was " like a weav- 
er's beam.'* Elijah, at the word of the 
Lord, outstripped the king's chariot, — the 
father in the parable ran "a great way" 
to meet his repentant son ; and the disci- 
ples at Lystra " ran in " to restrain the 
crowd who were sounding their praises. 
But these were all cases of legitimate, well- 
ordered haste ; and so the actors moved 
under the shadowing of the promise : 

" When thou run nest, thy foot shall not 
stumble'' (Prov. iv. 12). 

Nay more, of this : 

" They shall run, and not be weary " 
(Is. xl. 31). 

No mistakes, no confusion, were possible. 

"I therefore so run," — said Paul, — u not 
as uncertainly " (1 Cor. ix. 26). 

They followed the Lord so close, that 
there was no doubt which way he was 
4 



50 A Time for Everything. 

leading ; and they went as fast as he led 
them. 

Yes, " haste," " speed," " run/' are good 
Bible words, with an urgent Bible meaning ; 
but it is only such glad pressure as the sun 
is in, which moment by moment, and with- 
out the loss of a single one, " hasteth to 
his place whence he arose." There is all 
the difference in the world between the 
haste which comes from crowding, and that 
which springs forward with intense conse- 
cration to the work in hand ; saying, for the 
time : " This one thing I do." 

Everything in the Bible is against our 
feverish rush. The good seed in the good 
ground, with its vigorous, ceaseless, fruitful 
growth, is compared with those who " hav- 
ing heard the word, keep it, and bring forth 
fruit with patience. ,, 

" First the blade, then the ear, after that 
the full corn in the ear" (Mark iv. 28). 



A Time for Everything, 5 1 

It is so in nature, it is so in grace ; it 
should be so in every department of human 
life. " Let thy garments be alway white" — 
even " unspotted," — but how can thag: be, 
if you rush through this muddy world at 
such breakneck speed ? Take the simple 
Bible image : Christ's flock are " led," 
"guided," "shepherded ;" and through dif- 
fering little paths they follow on ; pausing to 
feed, stopping to rest, drinking " of the brook 
in the way." The rush and confusion come 
only when they are drawn off from their 
Shepherd by some sudden allurement, or 
are frightened away by some foolish dread. 
As if He did not know ! — as if He would 
not take care ! 

Do you ever wait to make sure the Lord 
is before you, in those ways you tread so 
rapidly ? You hurry in, not thinking ; you 
hurry on, not looking ; and thus many a 
thing is done which should not (and other- 



52 A Time for Everything. 

wise would not) be ; while many another is 
neglected ; and the same excuse is spread 
over all : want of time. No leisure to 
stucty your plans by the light of the Bible- 
lamp ; too driven to keep your temper : in 
the melee how often patience goes down, 
and meekness, and sometimes truth. 

" What shall I render to the Lord for all 
his benefits toward me?" (Ps. cxvi. 12.) 

Shall it be a life like that ? 

Nay, it is all wrong, — all the greatest 
mistake : for I do verily believe that this 
high pressure is quite our own fault. I 
believe that nothing need be neglected 
in the busiest life: nothing which the 
Lord has given us to do. Idleness has 
# no room there : neither work not given : 
neither unhelpful play : and it is when 
we let in one or all of these, that we 
get hurried, worried, and out of breath. 
For arrears are always hard to meet ; the 



A Time for Everything. 53 

only way with time as with money is to 
keep out of debt. Like Jane Taylor's dis- 
contented pendulum, we must learn that 
however many ticks we can think of in a 
second, or may execute in a year, there is 
always given for each the moment to tick 
in. And if the clock stands steady, and 
the pendulum hangs true, every tick will 
have its full, round proportions, and mark 
off its atom of finished work. So shall the 
"fulness of time" take its place with " the 
patience of hope," and "the labour of love." 




THE TANGLED SKEIN. 



IN the old fairy tale, a young girl is set 
down to her embroidery before a great 
heap of tangled silk. Skeins of every colour, 
of every shade, are there ; but all mixed, 
twisted, snarled, in hopeless confusion. A 
fair pattern lies there too : a pansy, a 
" heartsease ; " and from the heap of con- 
fusion she must draw all her materials with 
which to work a perfect copy of the flower 
of peace. And she gazes from one to the 
other, and drops her hands in despair. 
Like this, it seems to me, looks many a 
life : and even so hangs many a hand, that 
has countless exquisite shining threads 
within its reach. The material is ready, 



The Tangled Skein. 55 

the pattern is given ; and yet confusion 
rules, and perplexity reigns, and there is 
little " fruit to perfection." All the fine 
powers and possibilities are knotted and 
clogged ; a strand of blue ends abruptly in 
a tangle of yellow ; or red is twined in 
until the whole thing looks purple. Yet 
there lies the calm-faced pattern, to shew 
what may be done ; and before it many 
a poor worker breaks down in tears. And 
then comes in the cunning temptation to 
give up matching colours exactly •, and after 
a pull at the right, to take instead an easier- 
running thread of wrong. What we in our 
very incorrect phrasing, call " doing the 
best we can." The white thread is in a 
knot, — catch up a gray one and work with 
that : the blue is tangled — make shift 
with the purple. But you can never work 
out heartsease so. 

In the story, nothing brought the dis- 



56 The Tangled Skein. 

traeting mass to terms, but the wand of the 
fairy Order ; and only Christian order can 
ever smooth out our life task; making the 
threads run clear and even, working out 
the plan, enabling us to say at the end : "I 
have fought a good fight ; I have finished 
my course ; I have kept the faith." 

Christian order: the counsel, the guiding, 
the touch, of Him who " telleth the num- 
ber of the stars," and " calleth them all by 
their names" (Ps. cxlvii. 4). Out of dark- 
ness and silence and seething mist, came 
forth at his word the endless harmonies of 
nature ; and chaos passed into a world of 
regular development, lit up wi'n colour, 
beautified with form, full of hidden wealth 
and untold forces ; and yet through all : 

" With never a leaf or a blade too mean 
To be some happy creature's palace." 

Like that I would wish my life to be, — 
with all least things, as all greater ones, 



The Tangled Skein. 57 

doing their sweet work ceaselessly, from 
day to day. The duties joys, the minutes 
golden ; the life course no longer a torment- 
ing maze or a disheartening hurry, but what 
every one's life should be : the clear work- 
ing out of " a plan of God." How good, 
how blessed, how grand, his plan — for the 
least of us — is sure to be; enfolding for 
each the very best possibilities, the very 
highest results of which that one is capable. 

And in what region of earth, do you ask, 
could such constant success be possible ? 
Just here where you stand. " The word 
is very nigh thee." And no one could 
ever miss it, were only " He spake, and it 
was done " the rule of the human as of the 
material creation. The best cure, the only 
sure preventive, of confusion, worry, and 
failure, lies in the simple Bible words : 

"Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it" 
(John ii. 5). 



58 The Tangled Skein, 

Choose so heartily the Lord's will con- 
cerning yourself and all other things, that 
to know that shall be your only question. 
Claim his promise : " I will guide thee with 
mine eye" (Ps. xxxii. 8). 

And then, " be not as the horse or as the 
mule, whose mouth must be held in with 
bit and bridle ; " but " understanding what 
the will of the Lord is," be ready with the 
answer : " Here am I : send me " (Is. vi. 8). 
Having asked him to lead, then follow. 
When he bids you " depart far hence unto 
the Gentiles," go; however much you would 
like to stay and preach to the people at 
home. Or if he says : " Return unto thine 
own house, and tell how great things the 
Lord hath done for thee," do that too : 
even though you might greatly prefer to 
be " with him " in more distinguished 
places. Even if in the midst of an ava- 
lanche of work he calls you " apart into 



The Tangled Skein. 59 

a desert place to rest awhile," — and even 
if the desert mean only a headache or a 
rainy day instead of a journey, — make no 
complaint, but follow close ; sure only that 
Christ is in the ship and will be upon the 
land whither you go for rest ; or it may be 
in the darkened room. Peter, " between 
two soldiers, bound with two chains," slept 
so sweetly, that he could hardly rouse up 
to see an angel. 

Perhaps all the best churches are sup- 
plied, — perhaps all the regular classes have 
teachers, and there is nothing left for you 
but the driblets. I went through that ex- 
perience once, and I know how it feels. 
Class after class was disposed of, until only 
the so-called poorest class remained : a little 
tangle of two or three very inconspicuous 
bits of humanity. The superintendent ap- 
proached me with apologetic caution. " I 
don't know what to do," he said, hesitating. 



60 The Tangled Skein. 

" You see Miss refused that class, — 

so I had to give her another." 

Well, I had not come there to " refuse " 
anything ; although, being human like the 
rest, I did think the big Bible classes looked 
very pleasant. But I took my place ; and 
soon found (as we always do) that where 
the Lord puts us, it is good to be. The 
superintendent however was not content ; 
and when a few weeks later I was pro- 
moted (as he thought it) I went to my new 
duties with rather a sad heart. For one 
of my small hard-faced creatures got hold 
of my hand, and said : " I don't want you 
to go ! " Sad and ashamed too, — that I 
could ever have had any thought but one, 
about work in the weediest corner, or on 
the dustiest highway. Like the then but 
half-converted disciple, so little absorbed 
in the mighty charge and question to my- 
self, that I found time to ask, " Lord, 



The Tangled Skein. 6 1 

and what shall this man do ? " And Jesus 
answered him : " What is that to thee ? 
follow thou me" (John xxi. 22). Promotion 
is rather a sharp-edged thing, when it makes 
you suddenly feel how many sizes too small 
you are for your present place. 

In this world, filled to its last corner 
with work that should be done, one needs 
a very single eye, a very self-controlled 
hand, a very heaven-directed heart, to pick 
out just his own work and no other. For 
" the harvest truly is plenteous, but the 
labourers are few.'' And the time is short. 
There is time to accomplish what we have 
to do, but not an atom too much. The 
poor child in the story, weeping over her 
task, must yet finish it " before dinner," — 
and we also ours, before " the night cometh, 
wherein no man can work." There will 
be no chance for it later on. Yet all the 
more need is there to keep clear of confu- 



62 The Tangled Skein. 

sion : to draw out the right working thread 
and have it run freely and without a hitch. 
And I know of no way like this : " What- 
soever he saith unto you, do it " (John ii. 5). 
" Ye shall not add unto the word which I 
command you, neither shall ye diminish 
from it, that ye may keep the command- 
ments of the Lord your God, which I 
command you" (Deut. iv. 2). 

Then you will not be tempted by the 
brilliant threads of scarlet that lie so close 
at hand : a pansy — not a poppy — is your 
allotted task. Work in lovingly and pa- 
tiently the quiet blues and purples ; and 
if from your flower all gayer tints are lack- 
ing, yet be not cast down. The darkest 
heartsease hath ever a golden eye ; and 
when the last stitches are in, you will 
know it too. "At evening time it shall be 
light." 



The Tangled Skein. 63 

" As God leads me, will I go, 

Nor choose my way. 
Let him choose the joy or woe 

Of every day. 
They cannot hurt my soul, 
Because in his control : 
I leave to him the whole, — 

His children may. 

" As God leads me, I am still 

Within his hand : 
Though his purpose my self-will 

Doth oft withstand. 
Yet I wish that none 
But his will be done, 
Till the end be won, 

That he hath planned. 

" As God leads me, so my heart 

In faith shall rest. 
Nor grief nor joy my soul shall part 

From Jesus' breast. 
In sweet belief I know, 
Which way my life doth go — 
Since God permitteth so — 

That must be best." 



64 The Tangled Skein. 

So living, you see at once no failure is 
possible, — neither can confusion creep in. 
Step-by-step following, is the most quieting, 
disentangling thing in all the world. 

In the parable of the supper, the ser- 
vants did not rush blindly on ; but went 
and came, went and came, between their 
Master and their work. He knew what he 
wanted done, they wanted to do nothing 
else. And never people wrought with more 
close-knit efficiency ; seeming as fresh at 
the end of their day's work as at the be- 
ginning. Fresher, in fact ; for they went 
from " calling " to " bringing," and from 
that to "compelling;" but always with a, 
"Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded." 

" They that wait on the Lord shall renew 
their strength" (Is. xl. 21). 

For want of just that quiet on waiting 
(as if the morning orders could cover ail 
the day) we undertake rashly, drive on un- 



The Tangled Skein. 65 



wisely, make mistakes, stop to worry — 
and then the work piles up. Now the 
promise is : "I will instruct thee and teach 
thee in the way which thou shalt go " 
(Ps. xxxvi. 6). 

Hour by hour, and step by step. No 
tangle of difficulties shall then distress my 
feet. 

" I will lead them in paths they have not 
known" (Isa. xlii. 16). 

No night of confused uncertainty delay 
my going. 

" The darkness and the light are both 
alike to thee" (Ps. cxxxix. 12). 

Even the burden and heat of the day 
shall not long weigh down my heart : 

"I will be as the dew unto Israel" (Hosea 
xiv. 5). 

And the tumult of opposition must grant 
me a safe passage through ; " for he know- 
eth all the fords." 

S 



66 The Tangled Skein. 

" He bindeth the floods from overflow- 
ing " (J°b xxviii. i). 

" The Lord sitteth upon the flood ; yea, 
the Lord sitteth King for ever" (Ps. xxix. 
10). 

How easily and sweetly it follows then : 

" The Lord will give strength unto his 
people ; the Lord will bless his people with 
peace" (Ps. xxix. n). 

I do not like to hear of " overworked " 
Christians : it seems an anomaly. And as 
little should they ever dwell in confusion. 
Not that there will be no questions to pon- 
der, no puzzles to see through : follow close 
as you may, you cannot know tmtil you 
know, which way the Lord is leading. He 
may put the Red Sea before you, — he may 
suffer Pharaoh to overtake : or he may ap- 
point you a long time of seemingly useless 
waiting. But there need be no unrest, no 
flurried thoughts. 



The Tangled Skein. 67 

" Great peace have they that love thy 
law, and nothing shall offend them " (Ps. 
cxix. 165). 

" And so it was, when the cloud abode 
from even unto the morning, and the cloud 
was taken up in the morning, then they 
journeyed : whether by day or by night that 
the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or 
whether it were two days, or a month, or a 
year, that the cloud tarried upon the taber- 
nacle, remaining thereon, the children of 
Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed 
. not : but when it was taken up, they jour- 
neyed. At the commandment of the Lord 
they rested in their tents, and at the com- 
mandment of the Lord they journeyed " 
(Num. ix. 21-23). 

For the prayer of Israel in their right 
minds, is ever : l 

" If thy presence go not with me, carry 
us not up hence" (Ex. xxxiii. 15). 



68 The Tangled Skein. 

Absolutely sure then to work out the old 
blessed experience of the Lord's daily care: 

" Who went before you, to search you 
out a place to pitch your tents in" (Deut. 

i. 33). 

Marching under the triumphant stand- 
ard of unnumbered fights, which never yet 
a shot could pierce nor weather stain. 

" Jehovah-nissi" (Ex. xvii. 15). 

"His banner over us" is "love" (Cant, 
ii. 4). 

And on that flag, most truly, " the sun 
never sets." 

"The Lord is my shepherd : I shall not 
want" (Ps. xxiii. 1). 

You see how easy it is to be quiet from 
fear of evil : you see how in so simply 
straightforward a life there can be little 
real perplexity. The Lord will indeed " be 
jnquired of for this," but then he will hear. 

"David enquired of the Lord, saying, Shall 



The Tangled Skein. 69 

I go up into any of the cities of Judah ? 
And the Lord said unto him, Go up. And 
David said, Whither shall I go up ? And 
he said, Unto Hebron " (2 Sam. ii. 1). 

It is as simple as that. 

u If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask 
of God" (Jas. i. 5). 

We may need to pray : 

" Lead me in a plain path, because of 
mine enemies " (Ps. xxvii. 1). 

" Make thy way straight before my face " 
(Ps. v. 8). 

But the answer is sure : " The meek will 
he guide in judgment " (Ps. xxv. 9). 

"In all thy ways acknowledge him, and 
he shall direct thy paths" (Prov. iii. 6). 

"Cause me to know the way wherein I 
should walk/' — cries the troubled one. 

And the promise is unfailing : 

" The Lord shall guide thee continually " 
(Is. xxviii. 11). 



yo The Tangled Skein. 

" And thine ears shall hear a voice be- 
hind thee, saying, This is the way, walk 
ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, 
and when ye turn to the left " (Is. xxx. 2 1). 

But how many people nowadays have 
restful souls ? — restful and resting. How 
many, like their Master, can sleep when 
there is " a great storm of wind," " a great 
tempest in the sea/' and " the ship covered 
with the waves " ? True, he knew that 
he could lay the tempest — but they know 
it too. " There shall no harm happen to the 
vessel wherein Christ is," wrote Samuel 
Rutherford : " but the crazed ship and the 
seasick passengers shall both get safe to 
land:" 

But remember the words with which we 
set out : 

" Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." 

Faith is quite useless without obedience. 



NOW. 



ANOTHER plain and very disentan- 
gling rule (and a wonderful time- 
saver) is this : 

"As we have therefore opportunity " 
(Gal. vi. 10). 

O, what trouble comes by the disregard 
of it! For want of thought, or through 
mere supineness, the right moment for a 
word, a deed, slips by unheeded, and we 
tire ourselves out in the search for it again. 
Yesterday I could have given such a one a 
word of counsel, — to-day I have run all over 
town and cannot find him. Of course the 
proper work of to-day lies by meanwhile. 
Why did I not speak yesterday ? — probably 



72 Now. 

I was timid, or shy, or self-indulgent ; and 
now if I am mercifully allowed another op- 
portunity, it can be but a second best. 
Well for my uneasy conscience if both man 
and opportunity have not drifted for ever 
beyond my reach. To-day I can give a 
little much-needed help : by to-morrow the 
help may be useless, or my power gone ; 
or it will take twice the labour, with half the 
success. The very fact that I held back 
to-day, will put me at a disadvantage to- 
morrow. Yesterday my violets would have 
sweetened a sick-room, — to-day they are 
withered. Why were they not sent yester- 
day ? O, I was so busy. But to-day I 
must first take time to find fresh ones, and 
then maybe carry them all too late. The 
pale sufferer has gone where " everlasting 
spring abides/' and I have lost my chance. 
The working thread which is manageable 
as the Lord presents it, becomes knotted 



Now. 73 

and twisted with a dozen more, by our 
neglect. 

Do you see why we are to be " instant" — 
on the alert — u in season, out of season " ? 
wide awake to seize each swift-winged mo- 
ment, " buying up opportunities/' Eager to 
do now the Lord's bidding, because when 
by-and-by arrives, he will tell us something 
else. And remember, it is only now that 
anything can be done. We regret yester- 
day, we plan for to-morrow, but we must 
act to-day. And if ever a missed oppor- 
tunity should again present itself, it will 
still be in the guise of an inexorable " now." 
"Turn ye now" (Jer. xxv. 5). " Prove me 
now " (Mai. iii. 10). While to those who 
slighted their opportunity, failed to use it, 
the Lord soon added : " Sleep on now, and 
take your rest" (Matt. xxvi. 45). 

O loss, never to be forgotten nor made 
up. They might have watched with Christ 



74 Now. 

one hour, and they did not! — No wonder 
they were ready to forsake him and flee 
when the test came : a neglected privilege 
is a long step towards a committed sin. 

Neither is there any enemy in front like 
a forsaken duty in the rear. Israel refused 
their first chance against Amalek ; and 
then rushing up, out of time, found that 
the Lord was not before them, and were 
miserably discomfited. But the people who 
obey exactly, and obey at once, are " strong 
and very courageous ;"" and they only " re- 
deem the time." For prompt obedience 
leaves no margin of waste. Not only you 
have the right moment in which to do (and 
everything is easier done then) but no time 
is lost in after regrets, and sorrowful tears, 
and prayers for forgiveness over slack- 
handed delays. The eunuch was well on 
the road before Philip got his orders ; and 
Philip had to run to catch him; and yet 



Now. 75 

the man was questioned, answered, con- 
verted, -baptized, and Philip away again, be- 
fore some of us would have decided whether 
the Lord had not better send another man 
to do the work. Andrew went for his 
brother the minute he thought of it ; the 
other Philip drew Nathanael along as soon 
as he found him. The four men bring the 
palsied one between them, break up the 
roof, let him down, — and forthwith he 
walks away on his own feet, " carrying that 
whereon he lay;" and the four go off light- 
hearted and with hands ready for other 
work. Cornelius, bid to send for Peter, 
sent " immediately ; " and " without gain- 
saying," "as soon as he was sent for," Peter 
came. " Whatsoever he saith unto you, that 
do : " both so, and now. 

To men in that temper difficulties sink 
down into the common dust of the high- 
way : the roof, the distance, the unlikeli- 



y6 Now. 

hood, go for nothing. For our humility is 
too often sloth, and our prudence but just 
"the fear of man." "He that observeth 
the wind shall not sow ; and he that re- 
gardeth the clouds shall not reap " (Eccl. 
xi. 4). 

Remember how Moses displeased the 
Lord, by maintaining that he was not "elo- 
quent," — not fitted for the work which the 
Lord gave him to do. Remember the 
" What doest thou here ? " to Elijah, when 
he had fled away in despair from a false 
church and a persecuting world. What 
more could he do, among such a people ? 
and yet : 

"What doest thou here, Elijah?" (i 
Kings xix. 9.) 

Think of the time Jonah wasted, because 
he shrank from declaring to rich Nineveh 
" the whole counsel of God." He was sent 
with a message, and he would not deliver it. 



Now. jj 

It took months of experiences to bring him 
to his duty ; and then he had to take up the 
thing just where he h?d laid it down. 

Then think of the lost days to Balaam, 
when having been told what to do (or 
rather what not to do) he set himself to 
get the orders reversed. Alas, it was more 
than lost time with him : it ended in lost 
eternity. 

He had his reward. 

" I will promote thee to great honour/' 
said Balak: and Balaam forgot that " Shame 
shall be the promotion of fools " (Prov. 

iii. 35). 

He tried to serve two masters, and pleased 
neither; sending away the first messengers 
when the Lord said, " Thou shalt not go." 
But when the second came, with bigger 
offers, he asked again ; and this time the 
Lord let him have his way. He got fright- 
ened sometimes as he jogged along; saying, 



y8 Now. 

" Now therefore if it displease thee, I will 
get me back again : " but still he went 
on ; going sideways, and looking over his 
shoulder, yet holding on his "perverse way." 
With that strange fear which is not repent- 
ance, thinking something was after him, but 
failing even to imagine the drawn sword 
which glittered on ahead, until " the dumb 
ass reproved the prophet." 

O what miserable temporizing and hag- 
gling we have over our orders sometimes ! 
teasing until we get our u head," and then 
creeping along with a smiting " If it dis- 
please thee." And O what loss of time, 
strength, and comfort it entails ! 

" What thing soever I command you, ob- 
serve to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, 
nor diminish from it" (Deut. xii. 32). 

More than that : 

" Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily " (Col. 
iii. 23). 



Now. 79 

But "heartiness" and hurry, like knowl- 
edge and wisdom, have "ofttimes no con- 
nection." In fact the very want of hearti- 
ness brings hurry. 

" He also that is slothful in his work, 
is brother to him that is a great waster" 
(Prov. xviii. 9). 

If the thing is hard, take hold at once; 
if there are difficulties, meet them now : 
letting the proper work of each minute fall 
into place as surely and sweetly as the min- 
ute itself ticks off. You can often do it 
and have done with it, while you are wish- 
ing you could do something else. I said 
work, — I should have said duty. For the 
required business of the hour may be sleep 
or rest instead of action ; and must as little 
be slighted. Do that also with your might; 
and no more spoil your rest with work, 
than your work with idleness. Even the 
nerveless iron locomotive needs intervals 



80 Now. 

of "cooling off:" the same engine does 
not take you from New York to Albany, 
but is switched off at Poughkeepsie for its 
turn of quiet. Time better spent so, than 
in costly repairs. The seasons of proper 
rest, of helpful study ("that the man of 
God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished 
unto all good works") are but the whetting 
of the sickle, the feathering of the arrow, 
for belter and swifter work. How often are 
we laid by with a day's illness, just because 
in our self-willed zeal we have refused to 
take an hour of rest. Lay down your bur- 
den at the Lord's feet, O tired worker, and 
trust it there, until you are fit to take it up 
again. Can the great enemy of souls steal 
even one, from under His watching ? 

"There is that neither day nor night 
seeth sleep with his eyelids " (Eccle. viii. 16). 

Cannot yours close at the proper time, 
leaving all to his almighty care? 



Now. 8 1 

Consider the lilies of the field, O women, 
toiling on into the night that the children's 
dresses may be finished. " Where is your 
faith?" Is it service to stitch your eyes 
out, and your brain into a whirl ? Even in 
great things, the Lord himself put u to do 
the will of God," before " to finish his work." 
Yet people hurry along, bending under a 
dull weight of oppression, which they would 
not dare charge upon God, nor quite like — 
in heathen fashion — to lay upon fate ; but 
least of all do they own it is Pharaoh. 
Have the children really no clothes ? Yes, 
but not so fine as their neighbours 5 . M?ist 
you go to this meeting, half sick as you are ? 
u No — but — Well, I do not want some- 
body else in my chair." — Ever so much 
of our over work is really self-indulgence. 
Are we bound to wear just such a dress, 
give just such a dinner, make just (or at 
least) so much money ? No, by no right- 
6 



82 Now, 

eous law, human or divine. It is Pharaoh's 
taskmasters, as I said. Try close, instant 
obedience to the Lord's hourly guiding, and 
see how the friction will die out, the con- 
fusion clear away. Perhaps you may not 
then find time to tie up the door-knobs in 
white muslin bags, — possibly a bargain 
may now and then escape you : but 

" Better is an handful with quietness, than 
both the hands full with travail and vexation 
of spirit" (Eccle. iv. 6). 

All the clear health of mind and body you 
can gather will not be too much, if you are 
to live like the woman of Proverbs xxxi. 
10-31, the man of 2 Tim. vi. 11-15. Steady 
nerves and a calm brain are great backers 
of faith, in this world where the height of 
success is to be, 

" Troubled on every side, yet not dis- 
tressed ; perplexed, but not in despair " 
(2 Co. iv, 8). 



Now. 



83 



Truly, such a one is "a wonder unto 
many." 

u His branches shall spread, and his 
beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his 
smell as Lebanon " (Hos. xiv. 6). 




ALL THINGS FULL OF LABOUR. 



I TALK of rest, I say you may be quit of 
confusion ; but let not any one picture 
to himself a life with little to do, or even 
fancy that such a life would be pleasant. 
I suppose the busiest of us but faintly 
realize the things which might be done. 
The work lies all about yon, even if you 
never take it up ; but if you do not, your 
own personal loss is very great. You can- 
not make time so : you only kill it, lose it, 
throw it away. 

" Occupy till I come," said our Master, — 
and that word searches out every corner of 
possibility: each hour is lent to see "how 
much every man will gain by trading ; " not 



All Things full of Labour. 85 

for himself, but for the great Owner of it 
all. What the Lord Jesus would have done 
we are to do, where he would have gone we 
are to go. And all with the prompt, joyful 
alacrity which marks those servants who 
not only " wait for their Lord," but also 
" love his appearing." While u a little more 
sleep, a little more slumber, a little more 
folding of the hands together," as surely 
tells that the servant saith in his heart: 
" My Lord delayeth his coming." 

" Full of labour," — but if you take it right, 
this "occupy" is also full of the richest, 
sweetest pleasure. The marginal reading 
of Eccle. i. 5 : "The sun panteth to his place 
whence he arose :" just describes, I think, 
the true wholesome state of a wholesomely 
living soul. That eager, glad, strained (but 
not tfiwstrained) endeavour after right ends ; 
never ceasing, never hurried: " rejoicing as 
a strong man to run a race." 



86 All Tilings full of Labour. 

" Shine like the sun in every corner," 
said George Herbert : the human transla- 
tion of " Occupy till I come" (Lu. xix. 13). 

But this joy in the thought of to-morrow's 
work, presupposes the work of to-day well 
done. If that has been left at loose ends, to 
be afterwards painfully caught up and knit 
together, we reach " the place whence we 
arose," panting after a very different sort : 
breathless, and tired ; for it makes all the 
odds in the world whether you pursue your 
business, or your business you. A pretty 
day the old clock would have had of it, if 
after idling over his w T ork three quarters of 
an hour, he had tried to chink in all the 
neglected ticks ! Look at the indicators on 
the face of a day-and-month telling clock, 
and see how softly and irreversibly June 
changes to July, and the 1 into the 2. The 
time — the proper time — for one thing is 
gone, the time for another is come ; and 



■■■■■■■BBB^BBiHBaaa 



All Things full of Labour. 87 

there is not room for both. An impene- 
trability in things immaterial, as in the 
material, confronts us on every hand. 

" To everything there is a season, and a 
time for every purpose under the heaven" 
(Eccle. iii. 1). 

" A time to kill, and a time to heal ; a 
time to break down, and a time to build 
up." 

" A time to rend, and a time to sew ; a 
time to keep silence, and a time to speak " 
(Eccle. i. 3, 7). 

Neither is there in action any more than 
in opinion a convenient middle ground 
which either side may use at will. 

"He that is not with me is against me: 
and he that gathereth not with me scat- 
tered " (Lu. xi. 23). 

Whatever is not gain, is loss. We com- 
fort ourselves over to-day's neglect, with, 
O I can do it to-morrow : forgetting that 



88 All Things full of Labour. 

to-morrow also will have its own appointed 
duties, and not one minute to spare for the 
waste of to-day. And thus begins a sys- 
tem of borrowing time, at ruinous rates of 
interest. 

It stands to reason then that no time 
must be squandered. In this as in every- 
thing throughout the natural world, the 
rule is absolute fulness, as close pressed 
as consists with absolute perfection : not 
a blade of grass too many, not a quarter 
inch too much. And so for us and our 
occasions there are minutes enough, but 
not one to throw away. Then of course 
it follows that each minute has its own 
appointed morsel of work ; and every min- 
ute that flits by unloaded, flings its proper 
burden on the rest. This is one great way 
in which we get in a hurry and keep in 
a hurry ; letting our work roll up like a 
snowball, until the separate light flakes 



All Things full of Labour. 89 

become a mass too heavy to lift ; and flesh 
and heart too, break down in the attempt. 
But when all is said, the work remains : 
work ever increasing, never clone. When 
we clear a lookout to the river among our 
cedars, for a little the open space rejoices 
our eyes ; and then directly, as if they had 
been waiting their chance, the trees on 
either side stretch out their branches, and 
close it in. You go to see one poor person, 
and you find three ; you sit down to mend 
one rent, and behold there are two. We 
wanted to give comfort and rest one sum- 
mer to some city-fagged student with no 
hotel bills in his power ; and almost before 
we knew we had spoken our wish, six such 
students were offered us. All apparently 
waiting for just our one poor little room. 
It made us feel sore-hearted. 

" All things are full of labour ; man can- 
not utter it" (Eccle. i. 8). 



90 All Tilings full of Labour. 

There is simply no end to the things to 
be done. Thorns and thistles grow here, 
and fields white for harvest stand there ; 
and the sweat of the face is the daily ex- 
perience. And Solomon goes on to state 
what to some of us is the hardest part of 
all : the wearisome sameness that comes in. 
If only some thistles could be yellow ! — 
if only some thorns wore their prickles at 
the tips of the branches ! if only the nettles 
would sting with a little change of sensation ! 
Even a blue caterpillar would be a relief, 
and a green wire-worm rouse some faint 
sensation. But no : 

44 The thing that hath been, it is that 
which shall be ; and that which is done, is 
that which shall be done: and there is no 
new thing under the sun " (Eccle. i. 9). 

The same faults, the same needs, start up 
day in, day out ; and from the time men first 
put on stockings, the holes have come in 



All Things full of Labour. 91 

the same places. Even the pleasure seekers 
find it true, who spend their time in search- 
ing for novelty. Life seems to take a cer- 
tain area, within which the years swing back 
and forth, pendulum fashion, and never go 
beyond. It is one round of cooking, sweep- 
ing, and mending, — or on the other hand, 
of ordering dinners and guiding the house, 
— or of dressing, visiting, driving to the 
Park, and coming home. Either way it is 
just a round. 

" Is there anything whereof it may be 
said, See, this is new ?" (Eccle. i. 10.) 

The same sins to fight, the same sorrows 
to comfort, the same places to go to, the 
same people to see. Men get a little variety 
out of the rise and fall of stocks, the mak- 
ing and losing of money ; the President 
going in, and the President going out. 
But even that, for the most part, subsides 
into an average : it is but up and down, 



92 All Things full of Labour. 

four years and four years, when all is said. 
There is little variety (or at least much 
sameness) even for men. They hail the 
same omnibus, catch the same train every 
morning, nod to the same people on the 
way, and come back to the same dinner 
hour every night. Say about the same 
thing to their wives at dinner, smoke the 
same cigars, rustle the same newspapers, 
stroll out for a half-hour in the same 
streets, or drop in on the same cronies, to 
discuss the same subjects. A bit of gos- 
sip — a business report — the bulletin of the 
weather, — nothing of much more refresh- 
ing power than the entries in the old 
journal in the Spectator: (i Mem : Grand 
Vizier certainly hanged." 

The elevated road made a small sensa- 
tion for a while, and so will the balloon 
express, — but it will not last. Solomon 
called it a " sore travail" this machinery, 



All Things full of Labour. 93 

working with an endless band ; and looked 
at so, it is. 

" What profit hath a man of all his labour 
which he taketh under the sun ? " (Eccle. i. 3). 

" Generation passeth away, and genera- 
tion cometh," — " the sun ariseth, and the 
sun goeth down ; — the wind goeth toward 
the south, and turneth about unto the 
north," — " all the rivers run into the sea," 
— and after all, " the sea is not full." 

" All the labour of man is for his mouth, 
and yet the appetite is not filled " (Eccle. 
vi. 7). 

" The eye is not satisfied with seeing, 
nor the ear with hearing " (Eccle. i. 8). 

When we have seen this thing, let us 
hunt up something else ; when we have 
this, let us get the other. When our barns 
are full (note well the word) let us pull 
them down and build bigger. A restless 
sameness fills all the world ; and there is 



94 All Things full of Labour. 

no hope, according to Solomon, that this 
state of things can ever be mended. It 
was all " vanity and vexation of spirit/' to 
his sagacious mind. And even in the 
great facts of life and death he found the 
same monotony. 

"All things come alike to all" (Eccle. 
ix. 2). 

" As it happeneth to the fool, so it hap- 
peneth even to me" (Eccle. ii. 15). 

The strange, humbling oneness of human- 
ity crept under the royal robes, climbed up 
the ivory throne. 

" Yea, though he live a thousand years 
twice told, yet hath he seen no good : do 
not all go to one place ? " (Eccle. vi. 6.) 

"The house appointed for all living" 
(Job xxx. 23). 

And from "dust to dust," walled in the 
longest life. Even so, Solomon could not 
get rid of them and their monotony. 



All Tilings full of Labour, 95 

" There is no end of all the people " 
(Eccle. iv. 16). 

" That which hath been is now, and that 
which is to be hath already been " (Eccle. 
iii. 15). 

" An end of all perfection " David had 
found, and easily ; but when Solomon 
sought for the end of /^perfection — alas, 
it lay hid beneath the receding pointers 
of the rainbow ! It was a melancholy view 
enough. 

" Is there taste in the white of an egg ? " 
(Job vi. 6.) 

And things are nearly as bad in our own 
day. The monotony of labour in time-worn 
channels, weighs down the race. The tree 
of life, bearing " twelve manner of fruits," 
groweth not hereaway. Now as then, 

" That which is crooked cannot be made 
straight, and that which is wanting cannot 
be numbered " (Eccle. i. 15). 



g6 All Things full of Labour, 

And if even Solomon thought " of mak- 
ing many books there is no end/' and found 
" much study" a weariness, what would he 
have said in our time ? 

" There is no end of all his labour ; 
neither is his eye satisfied with riches ,} 
(Eccle. iv. 8). 

" He that loveth silver shall not be satis- 
fied with silver; nor he that loveth abun- 
dance with increase" (Eccle. v. 10). 

Universal discontent follows on the heels 
of the universal hurry ; and sameness and 
weariness go hand in hand. And which 
of us cannot smile and sigh too over that 
clause about the rivers, which sets forth in 
finer language what we say so often and so 
despairingly : " I never get through ! " All 
the ceaseless work of the day, the week, the 
year, has been poured into that ocean of 
demand, — " yet the sea is not full." There 
will be just as much call to-morrow as there 



All Tilings full of Labour. 97 

is to-day. From work basket to mission 
school, the work grows — not diminishes; 
and of necessity, for the most part, falls into 
a gray routine. 

Like the foam streaks on the river, which 
sometimes for hours together show little 
change of outline ; though wave after wave 
rolls under them, and rolls away. Some 
one has acutely defined " work " to be : 
"doing the same thing over;*' and we all 
know how many a labour seems like play, 
while it is new ; and many another presses 
hard, just because it is old. The shoulder 
is tired in just that place, the head is weary 
of just that thought. Even in play it is 
true. I knew a woman once into whose 
young soul the monotony of life had pressed 
so deep, that she every now and then, at 
church, went up the aisle that was furthest 
from her pew, " for a change ! " "I do wish 
worsted dresses would come in fashion," 



98 All Things full of Labour. 

she said to me one day. " I am so tired of 
wearing silk ! " 

We workers are better off than that, 
though we too feel the sameness ; but 
there is some help in remembering that 
it must be so. 

" While the earth remaineth, seedtime 
and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer 
and winter, and day and night, shall not 
cease " (Gen. viii. 22). 

In all the great features, one year will 
be like another, while the world stands. 
Neither will to-day ever be able to do yes- 
terday's work, or to-morrow's work ; and 
when we try that, or expect that, we easily 
grow discouraged, and make labour in- 
deed a curse. But to-day will always be 
full. 

Once a year the old Israelites were to eat 
the Passover, staff in hand and shoes on 
feet ; but to us is given the hourly rule : 



All Tilings full of Labour. 99 

" Let your loins be girded about, and 
your lamps burning" (Lu. xii. 35). 

For even after a hard day's work the 
call may sound : 

"Gird thyself, and come forth and serve 
me" (Lu. xvii. 9). 

The minute-men of the Christian Com- 
mission even slept in full preparedness for 
action, ready at any moment to spring up 
and go. And there may suddenly rage 
a battle within your hearing, there may 
come wounded within your reach. You 
have already perhaps done much, but now 
do more: no putting off of armour while 
the war holds on. By and by, when the 
long life-day has sunk to rest, it shall be 
said : 

" Go and sit down to meat." 

" Blessed are those servants whom the 
Lord when he cometh shall find watching : 
verily I say unto you, that he shall gird 



IOO All Things full of Labour, 

himself, and make them to sit down to meat, 
and will come forth and serve them " (Lu. 
xii. 37). 

"The time came that the saints pos- 
sessed the kingdom " (Dan. vii. 12). 

Then, when there shall be no more "wars, 
nor rumours of wars:" then, when there shall 
be " time no longer ; " this ever coming, 
ever going, succession of hours and days and 
months and years, where before we can 
name the present it is already past. No 
more escaping opportunities, and possibili- 
ties that start up and fly : no 'more lives 
that sink down " as a shadow that declin- 
ed." 

" No rude alarms of raging foes ; 
No cares to break the long repose ; 
No midnight shade, no clouded sun, 
But sacred, high, eternal noon." 

No need then to say one to another : 
"Know the Lord; for all shall know him, 



All Things full of Labour. ioi 

from the" least of them unto the greatest of 
them " (Jer. xxxi. 34). 

No need to " resist the devil,'' for he 
shall be "chained:" no call for hard-won 
victories over the world, —for " the world, 
and the lust thereof," shall have " passed 
away." 

" There remaineth a rest (Heb. iv. 9). 

But now, 

"It is high time to awake out of sleep" 
(Ro. xiii. 11). 

Now, " do thy diligence in every way." 

" Take heed unto thyself, and to the 
doctrine" (1. Ti. iv. 16). 

" O Jerusalem, that bringest good tid- 
ings, lift up thy voice with strength : lift 
it up, be not afraid " (Is. xli. 9). 

" Reprove, rebuke, exhort " (2 Ti. iv. 2). 

"Make straight in the desert an highway 
for our God " (Is. xl. 3). 

And first of all, and for the sake of all, 



102 All Things full of Labour. 

" That good thing which was committed 
unto thee, keep" (2 Ti. i. 14). 

" Hold fast that which thou hast, that 
no man take thy crown" (Rev. iii. 11). 

" The people that know their God shall 
be strong, and do exploits" (Dan. xi. 32). 




ARE ALL APOSTLES? 



LOOKING at the immensity of the 
work, realizing in some faint way the 
glory of it, one often wishes heartily that 
one could do more : which is a very wise 
and right desire, and well open to fulfilment. 
But what is neither wise, right, nor practi- 
cal, is to wish to do everything you see 
others do, and exactly as they do it. They 
have their work, you have yours : and if 
you try to measure the respective size and 
importance of the two, you will probably 
blunder straight along, and get thoroughly 
discouraged. 

The Bible lays great stress upon " edify- 
ing " — building up. " Edify one another," 



104 Are All Apostles? 

edify the church, — but nobody ever yet saw 
a building on which everyone did precisely 
the same sort of work. It is all to the same 
true end : and so, steadily, surely, the wall 
rises, the windows look out, the beams fit 
in. And when things are right — in one 
small church, or the great Church univer- 
sal — the work goes on after this grand old 
pattern. 

" They helped everyone his neighbour; 
and every one said to his brother, Be of good 
courage. So the carpenter encouraged the 
goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the 
hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, 
It is ready for the sodering ; and he fas- 
tened it with nails, that it should not be 
moved" (Is. xli. 6, 7). 

It is a heathen example, but very ad- 
mirable. Each one found he had plenty 
to do, and yet could admire and cheer on 
the work of the rest : each saw the great 






Are All Apostles? 105 

importance of other men's doing what he 
could not. The very New Testament idea, 
also, you see. 

" For the bodv is not one member, but 
man v." 

" And the eye cannot say unto the hand, 
I have no need of thee : nor again the 
head to the feet, I have no need of you " 
(1 Co. xii. 14, 21). 

I suppose that mistake is sometimes made. 
But there is another, I fancy, much more 
common among us. For we who are only 
hands and feet, do often disparage our 
work ; looking up to the wise head, the 
bright eye, and feeling our own place in 
life to be dull and insignificant. Yet it 
is not so. 

" If the whole body were an 'eye, where 
were the hearing ? " (1 Co. xii. 17). 

Your idea would barter away the full- 
grown, well-developed figure of a man, for 



106 Are All Apostles? 

the conventional cherub — all head and 
wings. 

Change the image, and you will see this 
more clearly. Every single stone in the wall, 
— dim it may be, and inconspicuous, but 
fitted to its place and filling it well, — is as 
truly important to the great edifice, as the 
carved coping at which all men look. Set 
you up on a high enough pole, you think, 
and you could be an electric light with any- 
body : and maybe you could. And yet : 

" Those members of the body which seem 
to be more feeble, are necessary (i Co. 
xii. 22). 

I am beginning to have a tender liking 
for the despised old lamps, now banished 
to the humblest highways, and doing their 
brightest at the muddiest corners. Enough 
of them would light the city, with a more 
human glow, and no deadly wires in con- 
nection. 



Are All Apostles ? 1 07 

" Oppositions of science, falsely so called " 
(1 Ti. vi. 20). 

" Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by 
reason of thy brightness " (Ez. xxviii. 17). 

So the words come to me : Our mental 
Broadway is rather a lurid place just now. 

Never be dissatisfied with what you have 
to do. 

" Now hath God set the members every 
one of them in the body, as it hath pleased 
him" (1 Co. xii. iS). 

Your place in life, your work, your cir- 
cumstances (unless your own wilful misdo- 
ing has spoiled them all) are just the Lord's 
wise, loving plan, marked out ioxyou. When 
you complain of them, your complaint is 
against him. I think restlessness would 
well nigh die out of the world, if men but 
laid this to heart. 

But you would like to do something 
that counts, — everything counts. Men are 



io8 Are All Apostles? 

saved — as stones are laid — one by one. 
You may at least come out like that delight- 
ful little boy who having but one cent to 
put in the plate, was desperately afraid it 
was too small to be counted. Imagine then 
his joy, when the minister read out: 

" Our collection to-day amounts to fifty 
dollars — and one cent ! " 

It will be something, to have swelled the 
countless multitude by even one: to hear — 

" Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the 
least of these — " 

If a pulpit is denied you, cannot you 
preach in the street ? if you may not reform 
a neighbourhood, can you not teach at home? 
Not arithmetic, or even Latin and Greek, 
but "the weightier matters of the law: judg- 
ment, mercy, and faith." " Ye are the salt 
of the earth," — do all who come near you 
feel the wholesome, purifying stimulation? 
" Ye are the light of the world," — do your 



Are All Apostles ? 109 

own households see their way the clearer 
for that glad shining ? One might take up 
the thought of " Your Mission/' and carry it 
on almost indefinitely, setting thn so-called 
little over against the so-called grsat. 

If you cannot be a leader 

In the crowd that pours along ; 

Raise the fallen, lying prostrate 

Under foot amid the throng. 

If you cannot fire the nation, — 

If you cannot stir the race, — 

Lay cool hands on aching foreheads* 

Give sad hearts a resting-place. 

If you cannot reach the strangers. 

Gather in the men you know ; 

Teach your friend the way to glory, — 

Draw your comrades vyhere you go. 

Though your work be never mentioned, 

Though your name may not appear, 

Speak one word for " Jesus only," 

And the Lord at least will hear. 

It is one of the prettiest things in the 
world, to see how the broken walls of Jeru- 



no Are All Apostles ? 

salem were built up in the days of Nehemiah. 
And note first the absence of all hurry, not- 
withstanding the need of haste. The wall 
of Jerusalem was down, her gates burned 
with fire, and impassable heaps of rubbish 
lay on every hand. The case was urgent 
enough. Yet before he even began to talk 
about it, Nehemiah went alone at night, and 
studied the whole thing out for himself : as 
a young minister might word by word go 
over the text : 

" The whole world lieth in wickedness " 
(i Jn. v. 19). 

Then, gathering the great work into his 
arms, as it were ; knowing also to what full- 
est extent he was ready to pledge himself: 
the whole-hearted Israelite could say with 
strongest persuasion : 

" Come, and let us build up the walls of 
Jerusalem" (Neh. ii. 17). 

Telling then the wonderful providences 



Are All Apostles ? 1 1 1 

of God thus far, until the slow hearts of 
the people kindled. 

" And they said, Let us rise up and build. 
So they strengthened their hands for this 
good work" (Neh. ii. 18). 

Of course at once broke out a storm of 
laughter and scorn, upon the " remnant " 
that planned such great things. Convert 
the world with a handful of missionaries ? 
turn men from their wicked courses by 
your weak efforts ? 

" What do these feeble Jews ? will they 
fortify themselves ? will they sacrifice ? will 
they make an end in a day ? will they re- 
vive the stones out of the heaps of the 
rubbish which are burned ? 

" Even that which they build, if a fox go 
up, he shall even break down their stone 
wall" (Neh. iv. 2, 3). 

Like the questions in our own day : Can 
you ever reclaim a drunkard ? Will your 



112 Are All Apostles ? 

heathen converts stand ? And the de- 
spised ones gave back the only answer 
that is worth a straw. 

" The God of heaven, he will prosper us ; 
therefore we his servants will arise and 
build " (Neh. ii. 20). 

Then how they laboured, in the strength 
of such faith and purpose ! It was ideal 
church work ; for it was, 

"As every man hath received the gift" 
(1 Peter iv. 10). 

" Every man according to his several 
ability" (Matt. xxv. 15). 

You can see differences : all had not 
means alike, — still more, all did not la- 
bour alike with what they had ; and there 
was different work to do. The high priest 
began it : he and his brethren the priests 
taking first what seemed to them the most 
important ; even that " sheep gate" through 
which the sacrifices were brought. They 



Are All Apostles? 113 

builded and finished it, even to the last bit 
of cleansing and consecration. And it is 
pretty to see, that while they wrought thus 
as it were for the whole congregation, some 
of the congregation quietly wrought for 
them. Eliashib the high priest builded 
the sheep gate ; and meanwhile Meremoth 
the son of Urijah repaired "from the door 
of the house of Eliashib even to the end 
of the house of Eliashib ;" evidently think- 
ing that after his specially public labours, 
the high priest ought to rest. 

A stretch of solid building, from the 
foundations up, followed the " sheep gate ; " 
finished bit by bit by one and another in 
turn, even as far as " the fish gate ; " which 
also in its measure was well and thoroughly 
done, until beams and doors and locks and 
bars were all in place. Some might say, 
what use in finishing any part, while so 
much was not even begun ? What need of 



U4 Are All Apostles ? 

bolts and bars on the gate, with a breach in 
the wall ten feet away ? But these builders 
were out-and-out men, and would have their 
work self-supporting before they left it. 

And now came a bit of repair, — and 
another, — -and another: rubbish to clear 
away, and if anything good was left, to 
adapt it and build it in. Repairing seems 
like comparatively easy work, and yet per- 
haps it needs just as deep devotion and 
whole-souled purpose. For when it came 
the turn of the Tekoites to repair, 

" Their nobles put not their necks to the 
work of their Lord " (Neh. in. 5). 

And you cannot do much with the tips 
of your fingers, " The wise woman of 
Tekoah" seems to have had some foolish 
compatriots, Nehemiah records it, but we 
do not read that anybody stopped to com- 
ment : they were all too eagerly busy. It is 
refreshing to turn to those heartier souls, 






Are All Apostles ? 115 

and catch even at this far-off distance the 
clink of their tools. New gates rose up, 
old gates were put to rights ; and "fortifica- 
tion " strengthened the more exposed places 
of the built-up wall. Every now and then, 
too, there is a noteworthy bit of sideway 
description. One man repairs " over against 
his house" — a place neglected by some 
builders. Then we have a shew of women's 
hands amid the universal masculinity. 

" Next to him repaired Shallum, ... he 
and his daughters" ( Neh. iii. 12). 

They were able to help him — he was 
willing they should. Then Baruch "ear- 
nestly repaired another piece.' , It may 
not have been a large piece, but we know 
it was good work. 

" With good will doing service, as to the 
Lord, and not to men" (Eph. vi. 7). 

And one — was he an invalid ? was he 
a poorest man?- — accomplished but this: 
he "repaired over against his chamber." 



n6 Are All Apostles? 

" She hath done what she could " (Mark 
xiv. 8). 

Yet even this, you see, would by and by 
reach round the world. 

So the work went on. Sometimes a 
rich man repaired a great piece ; or a knot 
of friends and neighbours took hold together : 
"the ruler of part of Mizpah," "the men of 
Jericho. ,, But next to them would be " Uz- 
ziah of the goldsmiths," or " Hananiah the 
son of one of the apothecaries : " or un- 
known " Benjamin and Hashub," repairing 
together "over against their house." I 
perceive also that " the Tekoites repaired 
another piece, " — so perhaps they got 
stirred out of their lukewarmness, and did 
better service. 

" So built we the wall ; and all the wall 
was joined together unto the half thereof: 
for the people had a mind to work" (Neh. 
iv. 10). 



Are All Apostles ? 117 

You see the grand result, and the simple 
explanation. But of course things could 
not long run on so smoothly. 

"They that will live godly in Christ Je- 
sus shall suffer persecution:" and these 
old builders found it true. 

Then as now the walls of Jerusalem 
must rise under fire; and this record is 
well worth studying out. It is such an 
every- day, human story, that might have 
been written for our own time. How the 
world laughed and then threatened ; how 
Judah lost heart and declared themselves 
tired ; how Jews dwelling among the world, 
came with big eyes and bigger stories of 
what the world would do. How Nehemiah 
— loyal heart! — never faltered, but keep- 
ing the people well to their work (great 
virtue in that) gave the one watchword : 
Remember the Lord. 

" Be not ye afraid of them : remember 



n8 Are All Apostles? 

the Lord, which is great and terrible " 
(Neh. iv. 14). 

Adding then the tenderest plea : 

" And fight for your brethren, your sons, 
and your daughters, your wives, and your 
houses." 

Remember — and fight : the far-off origi- 
nal, you see, of " Pray — and keep your 
powder dry." 

Do you think the injunction is out of 
date ? the plea grown old ? Does this gay 
nineteenth century need newer doctrine ? 
Alas, look at the ruined lives, the great 
houses left desolate, the floods of sorrow 
and evil which rolling up to the broken 
walls of Jerusalem, and finding them un- 
watched, flow in upon the city. 

They set a worthy pattern in Nehemiah's 
day. After that first brush with discour- 
agement, they returned all of them to the 
wall, "every man to his work." 



Are All Apostles? 119 

" They which builded on the wall, and they 
that bare burdens, with those that laded, 
every one with one of his hands wrought 
in the work, and with the other held a 
weapon. For the builders every one had 
his sword girded by his side, and so builded " 
(Neh. iv. 17, 18). 

That was the position, even for those 
who were too weak or too young to be 
more than armour bearers. 

" So we laboured in the work, and half 
of them held the spears from the rising of 
the morning till the stars appeared " (Neh. 
iv. 20), 

And it has its deep meaning, even for 
us. 

" Thou therefore endure hardness, as a 
good soldier of Jesus Christ" (2 Ti. ii. 3). 

"Fight the good fight" (1 Ti. vi. 12). 

"Earnestly contend for the faith once 
delivered to the saints" (Jude 3), 



120 Are All Apostles ? 

And also Nehemiah's trumpet has its 
counterpart in modern times : what though 
the peculiar metal which gave his its ring, 
is getting to be rare and very precious. 

" The work is great and large, — he re- 
minded them, — and we are separated upon 
the wall, one far from another. In what 
place therefore ye hear the sound of the 
trumpet, resort ye thither unto us : our God 
shall fight for us" (Neh. iv. 19, 20). 

Do you recognize that call when you 
hear it ? For even in this day of uncer- 
tain sounds, the rallying trumpet may still 
be heard. When a Christian minister calls 
for workers ; when a missionary asks for 
reinforcements ; when heathen beg for 
teachers, and Bible women say, Must we 
give up this district for want of funds? — 
then, as at Sinai, "the trumpet soundeth 
long ; " and with a tone only second in 
solemnity to that. It may be where fresh 



Are All Apostles? 121 

forces attack the Sabbath gate ; or storm 
up against the builders at the breach that 
drink has made: a flight of Sanballat's 
arrows (" What do these feeble Jews ? ") may 
fall in one place ; the faint-heartedness of 
Judah ( u We are not able to build,") may 
thin the ranks in another. But wherever 
it is whence the trumpet sounds, to those 
hard-pressed ones, whoever they may be, 
"resort ye" all. u Our God shall fight for 
us ;" you are not helping a doubtful cause. 
Do you think I forget my own words, and 
now enjoin you to be " in twenty places at 
once " ? Yes, but not in the way I depre- 
cated then. We all know what it is to send 
our hearts to the front ; and unable to go 
ourselves, to turn out every scrap of aid, 
comfort, and power the house affords, and 
then speed it on : so really fighting all along 
the line. Time will be given in one place, 
money in another : words, thoughts, prayers, 



122 Are All Apostles? 

influence, will all "strive mightily" with 
every hard-pressed band of workers. You 
can shew countenance at least ; and many 
a surrounded Board of Managers would be 
glad of even that. Do you remember the 
answer of the young soldier, when they 
asked him rather scornfully what he could 
do ? Said he : "I can stop a bullet that 
might kill a better man ! " 

One more objection comes up. " Our 
God shall fight for us," said Nehemiah : if 
so, why call on us f But you may notice 
that the wise old Jew makes the only legiti- 
mate use of the promise, with it urging 
men to do their utmost. 

" The Lord is with you, while ye be with 
him" (2 Chr. xv. 2). 

So God has arranged it, and it is useless 
to ask why. Stress almost unbounded is 
laid upon human agency ; and if every one 
else had answered some special summons, 



Are All Apostles ? 123 

the call would still be for you to do what 
you could. Israel had triumphed, " God 
had subdued the king of Canaan " before 
their forces; "the Lord discomfited Sis- 
era," and delivered him into Barak's hand : 
it was all done, and all the Lord's doing. 
But two weighty sentences point the great 
song of thanksgiving. 

" Praise ye the Lord for the avenging 
of Israel, when the people willingly offered 
themselves" (Jud. v. 2). 

And then the stern naming of those who 
"came not to the help of the Lord, to the 
help of the Lord against the mighty." 




UNTIL THE EVENING. 



DOES it appall you ? — 
" This sore travail that God hath 
given to the sons of men to be exercised 
therewith" (Eccle. i. 13). 

So Solomon felt. 

u I looked on all the works that my hands 
had wrought, and on the labour that I had 
laboured to do ; and, behold, all was vanity 
and vexation of spirit, and there was no 
profit under the sun" (Eccle. ii. 11). 

Solomon even went further, and "hated 
life :" as many a lesser man has done since 
then. And, as I said, the work of the 
world has not ceased, but rather grown 
greater ; and the turmoil is doubled, and 



Until the Evening. 125 

demands are heaped up ; and "there is no 
discharge." " Man goeth forth unto his 
work and to his labour until the evening," 

— and will, until the everlasting day shall 
dawn. And yet how grand, how whole- 
some, how delicious, is work: for us, the 
Lord's children, this part of the curse has 
become a blessing, the thorns and the this- 
tles bear blooms and fruit. How then, do 
we not get tired, "like other men" ? do we 
not feel the thorn-pricks too ? 

" I am not able to bear all this people 
alone," — said Moses (Num. xi. 15). 

"I, even I only, am left," — said Elijah, 

— " and they seek my life to take it away " 
(1 Kings xix. 10). 

Jonah fainted, and "wished in himself to 
die" (Jonah iv. 8), under the buffeting of 
an east wind of unusual power. 

Even Paul was " pressed above measure," 

— poor tired servants, getting dazed in the 



I2u Until the Evening. 

melee. But I think none of them ever 
" hated labour;" and a word, a question, 
from their Master set them all to rights. 
Just a touch of his hand, as it were, letting 
them know they were not alone. They 
wish to " stand idle," in a world where 
they could be " workers together with 
Him " ? " Spend and be spent " was their 
motto ; neither was life itself counted dear 
in comparison. Fainting and frightened 
and weary they might be, now and then, 
but never seeking their discharge ; never 
calling life, as the unhired people do, " one 
long disappointment." 

What then did Solomon mean ? he was 
the wisest of men, and ought to know. 
And he did know : he tasted to the full the 
" vanity and vexation of spirit " in things 
done merely for oneself. 

" Yea, I hated all my labour which I had 
taken under the sun : because I should 



Until the Evening. 127 

leave it unto the man that shall be after 
me. And who knoweth whether he shall 
be a wise man or a fool ? yet shall he have 
rule over all my labour wherein I have la- 
boured, and wherein I have shewed myself 
wise under the sun. This also is vanity" 
(Eccle. ii. 18, 19). 

"Vanity " enough ! 

" He heapeth up riches, not knowing 
who shall gather them " (Ps. xxxvii. 9). 

He plans the pulling down his barns and 
the building greater, and " that very night," 
perhaps, his soul is required of him. 

" Then whose shall those things be ? " 
(Lu. xii. 20). 

"So is he that layeth up treasure for 
himself, and is not rich toward God " (Lu. 
xii. 21). 

"Therefore I went about to cause my 
heart to despair of all the labour which I 
took under the sun. 



128 Until the Evening. 

" For what hath man of all his labour, 
and of the vexation of his heart, wherein 
he hath laboured under the sun ? For all 
his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; 
yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night " 
(Eccle. ii. 20, 22, 23). 

It is a weary outlook, over an alkaline 
plain. For it was all done for "me" " I 
builded me houses," " I made me gardens," 
" I gathered me silver and gold ; " doing it 
too with complete success. And it has a 
pleasant sound. 

" Whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept 
not from them, I withheld not my heart 
from any joy" (Eccle. ii. 10). 

" The kingdoms of this world, and the 
glory of them," do look attractive from 
certain points of view ; and perhaps no 
one ever swept on his earthly course more 
triumphantly than Solomon. 

" King Solomon passed all the kings of 



Until the Evening. 129 

the earth in riches and wisdom " (2 Chr. 
ix. 22). 

"My heart rejoiced in all my labour," he 
says, exulting in success. But then set in 
the inevitable recoil. Who should possess 
it all, when Solomon's hands let go ? what 
should become of the royal rooms, the 
heaped up treasure ? Who should com- 
plete these works, who keep up those ? 
Whose should be the "four thousand 
stalls, with theii horses;" the "weight 
of gold;" the "traffic of the spice mer- 
chants ; " the ships that every three years 
came bringing " gold and silver, ivory, apes, 
and peacocks " ? If only there had been 
a freight or express train to the other 
world ! — But no : the stern law : " When 
he dieth he shall carry nothing away: 
his glory shall not descend after him " (Ps. 
xlix. 17), was as unbending for the king as 
for the poorest beggar in his streets, who 
9 



130 Until the Evening. 

indeed had nothing to carry. And again 
the poor rich king who " withheld not 
his heart from any good " save one, cried 
out : 

" Vanity o: vanities : all is vanity." 
u Whosoever drinketh of this water shall 
thirst again " (Jn. iv. 13). 

And taking Solomon's stand-point, we 
might well join him in praising " the dead 
more than the living." But now just turn 
things round, and begin with, " Seek first 
the kingdom." For those whose life is 
" hid with Christ," who do all things in 
his name, seeking his glory not their own ; 
for them the world is a wide harvest 
field, and the mere work is glory. When 
" life is to do the will of God," no disap- 
pointment is possible ; neither can failure 
come in. 

" I run no risks, for come what will, 
Thou always hast Thv way." 



Until the Evening. 131 

" Of the increase of his government and 
peace, there shall be no end " (Is. ix. 7). 

Therefore working for that, you cannot 
fail. " Sovereigns die, and sovereignties," 
— said Carlyle : " how all dies, and is for 
a time only, yet fancies itself real ! " But 
this of which we speak, is 

" The everlasting kingdom of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Pe. i. 11). 

" Whose dominion is an everlasting do- 
minion, and his kingdom is from genera- 
tion to generation" (Dan. iv. 34). 

It is a bank that cannot break : and cent 
per cent but faintly shadows forth the 
"good measure, pressed down, and shaken 
together, and running over," — of the divi- 
dends. Take all the stock in it you can. 
And do not blame me for using an every- 
day figure : one sometimes sees great things 
best so. 

Thus living, not only for but with the 



132 Until the Evening, 

Lord ; going hour by hour and day by day 
close after his leading ; we get rid, too, of 
the pain of unfinished work. Up to this mo- 
ment " it is done as thou hast commanded ; " 
and a sudden call to the Presence Cham- 
ber means only that further work here was 
not ours to do. 

" Other men laboured, and ye have en- 
tered into their labours " (Jn. iv. 38). 

So yet other men into ours. You think 
nobody can carry on your work so well 
as you yourself ? But if it is the Lord's 
work, probably he knows about that : if 
not, indeed, it matters little what is 
done with it; it is sure to be burned up, 
sooner or later. 

Doubtless there were other churches and 
Christians for Paul to visit and strengthen, 
— yet he could say : 

"I have finished my course" (2 Ti. 
iv. 7). 



Until the Evening. 133 

And assuredly he had thought of many- 
further things he might do, — but still : 

" I am now ready to be offered up " (2 Ti. 
iv. 6). 

And when a man says " now " in that 
connection, he means it. The Lord knew 
best, in this as in other things. 

" Thy counsels of old are faithfulness 
and truth" (Is. xxv. 1). 

Could anything be better? And the 
Lord's faithful soldiers are not " retired 
upon half pay," but only ordered to report 
for higher duty ; called to join their regi- 
ments in the better land. 

" One army of the living God, 
To his command we bow : 
Part of his host have crossed the flood, 
And part are crossing now." 

This is the grand, simple, every-day truth 
for us all, — and yet I believe many a one 
gets little good from it. All very well for 



134 Until tJie Evening. 

Paul, you think, but for you — your work 
never seems to amount to much. The la- 
bour is hard, the results discouraging. 

" It is a glorious thing," said one of our 
soldiers on the battle-field, " to die looking 
up." — But it is also a glorious thing to 
live looking up. Remember, 

" We are labourers together with God " 
(i Co. iii. 9). 

" Fellow helpers to the truth" (3 Jn. 8). 

" Your work of faith, and labour of love, 
and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus 
Christ " (1 Th. i. 3), can never be in vain. 

" I hated life/' — said poor King Solo- 
mon, — "because the work that is wrought 
under the sun is grievous unto me. 

" I looked on all the works that my 
hands had wrought, and on the labour that 
I had laboured to do : and, behold, all was 
vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was 
no profit under the sun " (Eccle. ii. 11). 



Until the Evening. 135 

True again, O wise-foolish king, of 
things done only for oneself. 

" What shall it profit a man, if he shall 
gain the whole world, and lose himself, or 
be cast away ? " (Mark viii. 36). 

But of lives lived humbly " in the name 
of the Lord Jesus," a greater than Solomon 
has answered : 

" Write : Blessed are the % dead that die 
in the Lord from henceforth : Yea, saith 
the Spirit, that they may rest from their 
labours ; and their works do follow them " 
(Rev. xiv. 13). 

" Mine elect shall long enjoy the work 
of their hands " (Is. lxv. 22). 

Yes, for you, O faithful servants, the 
crooked things shall " be made straight," 
and " that which is wanting " shall be num- 
bered : even " the years eaten by the cater- 
pillar and the locust shall be restored." 

" He that goeth forth and weepeth, bear- 



136 Until the Evening. 

ing precious seed, shall doubtless come 
again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves 
with him " (Ps. cxxvi. 6). 

" The world passeth away, and the lust 
thereof : but he that doeth the will of God, 
abideth for ever" (1 Jn. ii. 17). 

Wherefore, " Let the peace of God rule 
in your hearts, to the which also ye are 
called in one "body ; and be ye thankful " 
(Col. iii. 15). 




